1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method and apparatus for supporting a patient in a proper position for a treatment, particularly for a dental and/or orosurgical and/or orthodontic treatment.
2. Description of Related Art
In the treatment of patients in the medical field, particularly in the field of dental medicine, the position of the physician, particularly of the dentist, and the position of the patient are of high importance. For an optimum result of the treatment it is important that those regions of the patient which are to be treated are optimally accessible to the physician and possibly to an assistant; for this reason it is usual for a dental or orosurgical treatment to support the patient in a certain position on a treating chair or treating couch. Owing to the different spatial positions of those tooth surfaces or jaw regions which are to be treated, the adjustment of the patient in the optimum position for the treatment may be time-consuming and complicated. Besides, the posture of the physician will be of essential significance for the ergonomy and, as a result, for his or her personal stress during the treatment.
German Patent Specification 21 19 837 describes a program-controlled chair for dental treatment, in which any manually adjustable position of the chair can be transferred by transfer means to a memory. In the use of that chair for dental treatment it is possible to a store positions which have been adjusted during a treatment on the storage medium and to retrieve said positions subsequently for the same treatment. For this reason it is possible to correctly reposition a patient for the same treatment very quickly in dependence on the stored data. But for a treatment of other regions it is necessary to adjust the chair to an entirely new position.
German Patent Specification 36 11 406 describes a station for dental treatment, in the use of which control data for a plurality of treating instruments and associated position control elements are stored in a portable data memory, which can be inserted into a memory receptacle, and control data can be written into said data memory and can be retrieved from it, inter alia, during a subsequent treatment, when said memory is in said receptacle. That data memory preferably contains data which are specific to a given patient and also permits a positioning of the patient only in previously adjusted positions.
Whereas particularly during a dental or orosurgical treatment those regions of the patient which are to be treated can systematically be determined as regards the orientation of different tooth surfaces, it is not possible in the use of the previously known treating chairs or treating couches to use data which are specific to a patient and to the physician for an adjustment of the treating chair or treating couch when new regions of the patient are to be treated. For any additional new treatment of the same patient it is necessary to re-determine and adjust the treating chair or treating couch to that position which is ergonomically most favorable for the treatment.